It’s Hard to Just Be Nice to People
There are several proficient approaches to a helping relationship because clients respond differently to the different therapeutic styles and ultimately, there is not one therapeutic approach that is generalizable to the entire population. However, after learning the aspects of different approaches to therapy, there are common aspects of the helping process that are widespread across multiple therapy groups. For instance, unconditional positive regard, a concept developed by humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers, refers to a “warm acceptance of the client’s experience without conditions” (Geroski). This is an essential aspect of humanistic therapy, but can be applied to numerous approaches to therapy. According …show more content…
When that relationship has been established, it allows progress to be made, “when therapists unconditionally prize clients, over time, the clients may come to prize themselves unconditionally, which facilitates higher levels of congruence and self-actualization” (Pomerantz). This is a crucial pillar of humanistic therapy; the relationship can only be effective first if the therapist is willing to put in the effort and show the client they are committed to their needs by being genuine, prepared to see the world from their perspective, and by warmly accepting the client and prizing their needs and feelings. If that has been established, the client will then be able to truly understand their situation and express themselves as the person they would like to be …show more content…
In Luepnitz’s “The Dewitts: the Case of a Therapist in Transition,” Luepnitz is initially treating Jill, a fifteen year old girl experiencing anorexia. After talking with her family and looking into her medical files, Luepnitz discovers that Mr. Dewitt sexually abused Jill as a child. How is she supposed to interact with Mr. Dewitt in the future? It is difficult to show warmth and acceptance to a man who victimized his own young daughter. Luepnitz’s supervisor suggests for her to “remember how psychologically fragile Mr. Dewitt must have been to react so excessively to his wife’s plans to get a job. He was a man with a $100,000 job and important responsibilities, but emotionally he was a child” (Luepnitz). She then proceeded to be more sensitive to Mr. Dewitt and treat him like a concerned father and not an evil man. When Mrs. Dewitt was angry and assigning blame to Mr. Dewitt, Luepnitz was right there to put everything into perspective and say “doing something terrible doesn’t make a person into a monster” (Luepnitz). Nobody had showed him that unconditional positive regard before, and it encouraged Mr. Dewitt to change and be more sensitive to Jill’s needs. This was an important step because if Mr. Dewitt did not want to step up and help, Jill would not have gotten the support she needed and the whole intervention could have failed
There are several proficient approaches to a helping relationship because clients respond differently to the different therapeutic styles and ultimately, there is not one therapeutic approach that is generalizable to the entire population. However, after learning the aspects of different approaches to therapy, there are common aspects of the helping process that are widespread across multiple therapy groups. For instance, unconditional positive regard, a concept developed by humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers, refers to a “warm acceptance of the client’s experience without conditions” (Geroski). This is an essential aspect of humanistic therapy, but can be applied to numerous approaches to therapy. According …show more content…
When that relationship has been established, it allows progress to be made, “when therapists unconditionally prize clients, over time, the clients may come to prize themselves unconditionally, which facilitates higher levels of congruence and self-actualization” (Pomerantz). This is a crucial pillar of humanistic therapy; the relationship can only be effective first if the therapist is willing to put in the effort and show the client they are committed to their needs by being genuine, prepared to see the world from their perspective, and by warmly accepting the client and prizing their needs and feelings. If that has been established, the client will then be able to truly understand their situation and express themselves as the person they would like to be …show more content…
In Luepnitz’s “The Dewitts: the Case of a Therapist in Transition,” Luepnitz is initially treating Jill, a fifteen year old girl experiencing anorexia. After talking with her family and looking into her medical files, Luepnitz discovers that Mr. Dewitt sexually abused Jill as a child. How is she supposed to interact with Mr. Dewitt in the future? It is difficult to show warmth and acceptance to a man who victimized his own young daughter. Luepnitz’s supervisor suggests for her to “remember how psychologically fragile Mr. Dewitt must have been to react so excessively to his wife’s plans to get a job. He was a man with a $100,000 job and important responsibilities, but emotionally he was a child” (Luepnitz). She then proceeded to be more sensitive to Mr. Dewitt and treat him like a concerned father and not an evil man. When Mrs. Dewitt was angry and assigning blame to Mr. Dewitt, Luepnitz was right there to put everything into perspective and say “doing something terrible doesn’t make a person into a monster” (Luepnitz). Nobody had showed him that unconditional positive regard before, and it encouraged Mr. Dewitt to change and be more sensitive to Jill’s needs. This was an important step because if Mr. Dewitt did not want to step up and help, Jill would not have gotten the support she needed and the whole intervention could have failed